Printers, such as inkjet printers and laser printers, use what are called “printmodes” to facilitate printing upon print media. A printmode typically refers to a set of controls and resources that instruct a print engine on how to print a page. Printmodes may allow a trade-off between speed and image quality. For example, a printer's draft mode provides the user with readable text relatively quickly. Presentation, also known as best mode, may be relatively slow but may produce relatively high image quality. Normal mode is a compromise between draft and presentation modes. Printmodes allow the user to choose between these trade-offs. Different printmodes can also be employed depending on the media type.
Print engines can typically have a number of different printing algorithms that provide the print engine with flexibility as it allows a user to select between tradeoffs associated with print quality and performance over different media types. For example, some users might prefer faster print outs, while others might prefer higher quality. Printmodes can control both the selection of an appropriate printing algorithm and its proper execution. Thus, print engines can support multiple different printmodes that are designed to serve different user needs.